The pack of yellow and green-clad Brazilians at the NAYRC can't be missed, and their cheers are heard from anywhere on the grounds. Today they have reason to celebrate, as their two-star event team took the lead after dressage.

Ten riders from Brazil, five in the one-star and five in the two-star, were invited to compete at the North American Young Riders Championships. It is the first time that Brazil has competed at the NAYRC. They are competing only in the eventing, not in show jumping or dressage.

After seven days in quarantine in Los Angeles, the Brazilian team horses, accompanied by veterinarian Priscilla Azevedo, headed to New York to spend seven hours waiting for a flight to Chicago. They arrived in good form on July 31, the same day as their riders, who flew straight into Chicago O'Hare from Sao Paulo.

Eventing is a developing sport in Brazil, with 200 riders participating more or less. Team groom Fabio Dragone said that most of the riders are very young, ranging from around twelve to twenty years old, because Equestrian sports in Brazil are mostly a hobby rather than a profession. In show jumping, where Roderigo Pessoa is a well-known figure, there are more professionals than in the comparatively new sport of eventing.

In Brazil it is mostly men that compete in eventing. With hundreds of good-looking girls walking around in tight riding breeches, the young men on the team are having a hard time concentrating on sport. But they take their team seriously and are training hard, and their team spirit is evident in the group clad in green, white and yellow that moves together as a pack around the show grounds.

Before coming to the United States the team had a fifteen-day training session, along with the team heading to the World Equestrian Games. They are coached in dressage by Anne Beatrix, and the Chef d'Equipe and jumping coach is Jose Ortelli.

Dragone said that three qualifiers were held to select a team to come to the NAYRC. "The calendar was set up so that the horses would come over here performing one hundred per cent," he said. "This competition is very important for us."

For the five Juniors, this is the first time competing outside of Brazil. Some of the Young Riders competed in last year's South American Championships, but it is the first competition outside of South America for all of the team members.

Rafael Mauridio Gouveia Jr., riding Ava, was longlisted for the WEG but chose to come to the NAYRC instead because he didn't want to skip a step in his development as an event rider. His test was well ridden, his horse impeccably turned out, and his polish as a competitor apparent. He has won at the three-star level, and it is likely that he will be prominent in Brazil's future in eventing.

HorsesDaily "On the Scene" at the 2002 NAYRC